Hair-protecting head covering



E. PELLETIER Feb. 27, 1968 HAIR-PROTECTING HEAD COVERING Filed June 25, 1965 INVENTOR. EUG ENE PELLETI ER United States Patent 3,370,304 HAIR-PROTECTING HEAD COVERING Eugene Pelletier, 155-A E. 71st St.,

New York, N.Y.; 10017 Filed June 25, 1965, Ser. No. 466,913 Claims. (Cl. 2-174) This invention relates to head coverings for protecting the hair; more particularly, this invention relates to caps for use in protecting womens coiffures.

In a situation where a woman has had her hair dressed in the afternoon and takes a shower before going out for the evening, she has difliculty in protecting her coiffure from compression and disturbance by the stream of water from the shower head.

Also, when the woman goes outdoors it is difiicnlt for her to protect her coitture from being mussed by the wind. It a scarf is used, it must be tightly tied around the hair. If a hat is worn, it also fits tightly around the hair. In either event, the hat or the scarf is likely to compress or disturb the coifiure.

One object of this invention is to provide a cap or hat of such construction as to provide a supported covering as a canopy over the coiffure or hairdress, in a raised position, to avoid pressing against the hairdress, and at the same time to provide protection to the hairdress from a stream of water from a shower head or from outdoor wind.

When the cap is made for use as a shower cap, the material of the covering or canopy should be impervious to water, such as any one of the various plastic sheet materials.

For outdoor use, where a hat may be desired to be worn, the material may be of any material or fabric that is relatively wind-resistant, so a hairdress will not be disturbed by a gust of Wind. For that use, practically most fabrics may be selected for their esthetic appearances, since the supporting structure will support the material as a canopy away from the hairdress, in spite of water or wind.

To support the covering canopy in protective position above the hairdress, several spaced ribs or stays are employed. Those ribs, in turn, are supported on a headband that is normally a loose border of the cap or hat and is arranged to be gathered and tied tightly around the head of the wearer as a snug headband. Such headband serves as a base or foundation on which the ends of the ribs or stays are supported so they, in turn, may support the fabric or material of which the cap or hat is made.

To permit such cap or hat to be formed into a selfsupported covering, the ribs or stays are of flexible resilient material to permit easy bending into substantially inverted U-shapes. The ends of the ribs are supported on the tied headband, and the curved bails of the ribs hold the material of the covering in elevated position above the hairdress, while at the same time providing a relatively rigid support for the covering material which is appropriately secured to the several ribs or stays to be held in stretched condition when the cap or hat is tied onto the head of the wearer.

The construction and the manner of application of the cap or hat of this invention is shown in greater detail in the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a plan view of the cap in substantially maximum open condition;

FIG. 2 is a rear elevational view of the cap, showing the cap alone and loose before application to the head of a wearer;

FIG. 3 is a side elevational view of the cap in operative position on the head of a wearer, with the border of the cap covering drawn tightly as a headband around the head of the wearer, and tied in place by a draw-string;

Patented Feb. 27, 1968 ice FIG. 4 is a rear elevational view of the cap, shown in operative position on the head of the wearer;

FIG. 5 is a plan view of a portion of the cap, with a portion of the covering material shown broken away to expose one terminal end of a rib to show how that terminal end is anchored and supported at the border that will ,serve as the headband when the cap is tightly tied in place on the head of the wearer; and

FIG. 6 is a sectional view taken along the line 6-6 of FIG. 1, to show the method of attaching a rib to the covering fabric, and how the tie cord is disposed in a hollow channel of the headband.

As shown in FIG. 1, a cap 10, emodying the invention, comprises a main overall covering 12, having a border 14, hemmed to provide a hollow channel 16 for accommodating a tie or drawstring 18 with means 17 for disposing the free ends of the drawstring outwardly from the channel 16. The drawstring 18 serves to gather the border 14 tightly around the head of a wearer, to make the tightly drawn border 14 serve as a firmly positioned headband 19 to support a plurality of ribs or stays 20 in proper position to support the covering 12 in elevated position above the hairdress 22 to be protected.

The ribs 20 in normally unstressed condition may be made of flat flexible resilient strips of preferably plastic material, or the ribs may be made of hollow tubes of plastic material that are flexible and resilient, so they may be bent to form bails of inverted U-shape, to hold the covering material 12 in elevated position above the hairdress 22. The dimensions of the ribs or stays 20 will, of course, be sufficient to enable them to hold the covering material 12 elevated above the hairdress 22, as is shown in FIG. 3. A vizor 23 protects the front of the face from Water falling onto the cap.

In order that the ribs 20 may be stable to support the covering 12, the ribs 20 are secured to the covering material 12 along the length of the ribs, and the two ends 24 and 25 of each rib 20 are suitably anchored at the border 14, so, when the border 14 is tightly drawn and held as a headband 19 (see FIGURE 3), the headband will serve as a relatively rigid support or base for the several ribs. At the same time, since the ribs 20 are secured to the material covering 12 by suitable stitching 26, the ribs 20 are held against lateral slipping or displacement.

Thus the panels 28 of the covering 12, between the adjacent ribs 20 is substantially extended almost flat between the ribs, but, more importantly, is supported in suspension between adjacent ribs to provide a protective cover or closed awning over and around the entire hairdress.

In FIGS. 3 and 4, the cap 10 is shown with the drawstring drawn tight and tied to hold the border as a tight, anchored headband 19. The terminal ends of the ribs 20 are supported on and by the headband 19, and the shanks or bodies of the bails or U-shapes are held against lateral shifting movement by their anchorage to the covering 12 by the stitching 26.

As shown in FIG. 5, each terminal end 24, 25 of a rib 20 is anchored in a suitable pocket 30 formed at the border 14 by suitable arrangement and stitching of the material at the border, or by additional small swatches to be stitched to the border walls.

In FIG. 6, the border -14 is shown hemmed by stitching 32 to form the hollow border channel 16 for the slip drawstring 18. An edging 34 of decorative material is shown stitched to the border 14 by stitching 36. The rib 20 is shown bound to the cover material by the stitching 26.

The vizor 23, shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, is sewed onto the border and can be tilted up or down. For shower cap use, the vizor will normally be tilted downward to prevent a shower stream from striking the face, front and cheeks. For use on a cap or hat for outdoor use, the vizor maybe tilted by the wearer for preferred personal effects.

By the construction shown, a simple inexpensive shower cap is provided that may be easily applied and that will serve effectively to protect a hairdress from the pressure of a shower stream in bathing, or from wind when worn outdoors. For outdoor use, the cap may be made of suitable materials of esthetic value and decorated or given the appearance of other external shapes while retaining the structural features here shown.

What is claimed is:

1. A hair-protecting substantially circularly-shaped head covering, said head covering comprising, in combination, a head cover made of flexible fabric material and having an area adapted to extend approximately from the hairline of a wearer to a substantial distance above the top of a wearers head, said cover having a normally loose headband portion extending about the periphery thereof and forming an opening in said cover substantially larger than the normal human head, a plurality of elongated resilient ribs secured to said cover for resiliently spreading the sides of said headband apart so as to hold said opening in an open, normally loose condition, and means operable for tightening said headband portion, substantially reducing the size of said opening, and securing said head covering onto the head of the wearer.

2. A head covering as in claim 1 in which said ribs are parallel to and spaced apart from one another.

3. A head covering such as in claim 2 in which each of said ribs is secured at each end to said headband portion of said cover at a position spaced from the positions band is in its normally loose condition. 3

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,350,712 8/1920 Dupont 2198 1,792,032 2/1931 Rayburn -3 132 49 2,156,955 5/1939 Hall 2 *43 3,019,444 2/1962 Pollack et al. 2 174 x 1 944,176 12/1909 Collins 2 204 1,096,415 5/1914 Davison 2 -204 1,239,910 9/1917 Harris 2-174 2,393,403 7/1959 Turman 2-474 X 3,014,220 12/1961 Weld 24171 3,113,321 12/1963 Siegel 1 2-174 FOREIGN PATENTS 489,382 1/1919 France.

JORDAN FRANKLIN, Primary Examiner.

G. H. KRIZMANICH, Assistant Examiner. 

1. A HAIR-PROTECTING SUBSTANTIALLY CIRCULARLY-SHAPED HEAD COVERING, SAID HEAD COVERING COMPRISING, IN COMBINATION, A HEAD COVER MADE OF FLEXIBLE FABRIC MATERIAL AND HAVING AN AREA ADAPTED TO EXTEND APPROXIMATELY FROM THE HAIRLINE OF A WEARER TO A SUBSTANTIAL DISTANCE ABOVE THE TOP OF A WEARER''S HEAD, SAID COVER HAVING A NORMALLY LOOSE HEADBAND PROTION EXTENDING ABOUT THE PERIPHERY THEREOF AND FORMING AN OPENING IN SAID COVER SUBSTANTIALLY LARGER THAN THE NORMAL HUMAN HEAD, A PLURALITY OF ELONGATED RESILIENT RIBS SECURED TO SAID COVER FOR RESILIENTLY SPREADING THE SIDES OF SAID HEADBAND APART SO AS TO HOLD SAID OPENING IN AN OPEN, NORMALLY LOOSE CONDITION, AND MENS OPERABLE FOR TIGHTENING SAID HEADBAND PORTION, SUBSTANTIALLY REDUCING THE SIZE OF SAID OPENING, AND SECURING SAID HEAD COVERING ONTO THE HEAD OF THE WEARER. 